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Getting Started
This article has been made to help newcomers to ModelUSGov understand how the simulation works and how they can get involved. --- What is /r/ModelUSGov? ModelUSGov is a simulation of the government and politics of the United States. We run the state and federal governments by having our own elections and writing our own laws. This isn't a perfect simulation of US government and politics, but it's as close to real life as is possible/would be fun. What are the parties, and what should I do to join a party? There are currently 7 parties and no independent groupings. Democrats – Platform The Democrats in the simulation are center-left, including being socially and economically liberal. They generally follow real life leanings, and range from Blue Dogs to social democrats. Republicans – Platform The Republicans in the simulation are center-right, fiscally conservative, and socially moderate. They generally follow real life leanings, but tend to be more moderate on social issues and the environment. Libertarians – Platform The Libertarian Party in the simulation stretches from libertarian centrists to minarchists , being socially liberal and fiscally conservative with a focus on individual liberty. While it generally follows real life leanings, it also has more moderate and more extreme members. Distributists – Platform The Distributist Party in the simulation espouses the economic principles of Distributism while advocating for social conservatism, a consistent life ethic, environmental protections, and religious values. It can be considered a specific part of the broader Christian Democracy movement. Radical Left Party – Platform The Radical Left Party in the simulation is a far-left party that opposes capitalism. It is a broad-tent party that includes communists, socialists, and anarchists. Its core values include anti-fascism, solidarity, environmentalism, feminism, and internationalism. Green Socialist Party - Platform The Green Socialist Party in the simulation is a eco-socialist party with a particular focus on environmentalism. Its members include some social democrats, socialists, greens, and other leftists and it is generally considered to be most similar to the Radical Left Party. National Party - Platform The National Party is a big tent nationalist party that represents the broad spectrum of authoritarians and third-positionists in the simulation. They are staunchly opposed to both free market capitalism and communism. If you'd like to join a party, go to the Join a Party thread. This is where you can request to join a party or ask questions about parties for representatives of these parties to answer. If your account has very low activity or is brand new, parties may ask you to comment on bills and reapply after one or two weeks. This is to ensure that no one is using alternate accounts. This is nothing to worry about, simply follow the instructions which the party in question gives you. Discord Discord is a chatting program, with applications on the Mac, Windows, iOS, and Android as well as on the web. All parties and much of the subreddit's discussions and community takes place on Discord. While nothing is *canon* that happens in Discord, it's a big part of ModelUSGov and is strongly encouraged. You can join the subreddit's Discord by PMing one of the subreddit moderators, and your party's leadership can admit you to the party discord server. What am I allowed to do as a new user? You can join a party to get organized, and you can comment in any of the threads you want to get a name for yourself. The community is small enough that if you are active, people will notice you. What am I not allowed to do? #No personal attacks or unprofessional language in posts. Personal attacks include any derogatory remark or negative statements which hold no relevance to the topic being discussed. Unprofessional language can include swearing, reaction gifs, etc. #No cheating. Cheating includes using dupe accounts to infiltrate party subs, using multiple accounts to vote, and other such actions. #No harassment via PM. #No downvoting. What are the simulation states, and how do they work? We simulate state governments in ModelUSGov too. State legislatures are a great place to get started as a new member and a great way to gain experience and make a name for yourself. We have six states in the simulation, which are composed of IRL states. These states are: * Northeast State - /r/ModelNortheastState - This state consists of New England and New York. * Eastern State - /r/ModelEasternState - This state consists of the Appalachian area, the Chesapeake Bay states, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina. * Southern State - /r/ModelSouthernState - This state consists of the Southern United States. * Central State - /r/ModelCentralState - This state consists of the United States Midwest. * Midwestern State - /r/ModelMidwesternState - This state consists of Texas and the Southwest, the Dakotas, the Plains and Rocky Mountains states. * Western State - /r/ModelWesternState - This state consists of California, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, and Hawai'i. Are there news or informal subreddits? ModelUSGov has a very active press scene with many model newspapers. You can read these at /r/ModelUSPress or even start your own. You can also read updates from the President and their cabinet at /r/ModelWHPress. ModelUSGov also has an unofficial circlejerk and meme subreddit, /r/ModelUSGovCirclejerk. This has many inside jokes and other informal jokes, posts, and memes. How about other subreddits? *ModelUSMeta: Where the meta is discussed and announced. *ModelSupCourt: A place to bring court cases against laws and do other judicial things (it’s the Supreme Court). *ModelWhiteHouse: A private subreddit for the President and his or her cabinet. *ModelUSHouse: A private subreddit for members of the House of Representatives to vote. *ModelUSSenate: A private subreddit for members of the Senate to vote. Okay, how can I get elected to office? Elections take place every two months, where every representative in the House, half of the governors, a third of the Senators, all state legislators, and a few other state offices (e.g. Attorney General of Eastern State) are chosen. Every four months, the President is chosen. Being involved with a party is your best shot at being elected, and each party will nominate a list of candidates every election. Independents can also run, but they have historically been unsuccessful with only a few exceptions. --- #**is some more information in the Wiki(https://www.reddit.com/r/ModelUSGov/wiki/getting-started)** --- Ask your questions below and we'll do our best to answer them.